An April Daybook {the Happy Birthday to Me edition}

Outside my window…

The birds are singing and the wind is blowing lightly.  Hoping for more glorious sunshine today!

Giving thanks…

For spring and all of the loveliness that is blooming around me!

I am thinking about…

How very blessed I am and how this coming year is going to be amazing.  Trying not to take any of this for granted and to stay in the moment as much as possible without mentally hopping on to the next thing.

In the Schoolroom…

Wrapping up our school year in the next few weeks.  I am really not in any rush to complete our work this year.  I have been re-thinking things and realize that there is no need to do “it all” just to have it all done.  Slow, steady appreciation of beauty soothes and nourishes the soul better.  I am actively choosing quality over quantity and resting in Him.
We'll take a little time off when we are done, and then I have some fun things planned for the summer including a nature study and learning Latin.

 

From the kitchen…

Nothing from me at the moment, but, I can hear little people baking a birthday cake for me.

I am creating…

A sweet little baby blanket for my niece’s baby due in a few months.
I remember when I was creating sweet little babies...seems so long ago.

 

I don’t ever want to forget…

The way Lovey Dovey loves to read to me!  He just grabs his book and we snuggle up and I just look at him and soak in all of the love that just pours out of this boy.  Right now we are working our way through The Early Reader's Bible and he just cannot get enough!

  

 I am working on…

Planning our garden for this year.  We are going to try Square Foot Gardening this year and I am SO excited about it!  We just purchased our seeds from and will plant in a few weeks.

I am reading…

Many different books:
 For myself, I am reading a few books simultaneously.
-The All New Square Foot Gardening
-Hold on to Your Kids
-The 4:8 Principle The Secret to a Joy-Filled Life
-The Living Page

With my little people we are reading:
-Amon’s Adventures
-On the Banks of Plum Creek
-The Horse and His Boy

all.great.reads :-)

I am praying…

For my brothers, my sons, my husband and myself {I tend to forget that last one at times}

I am struggling…

To find complete and total rest in Him and hand over the reigns and just follow His lead.
Baby steps…one day at a time :-)

I am hearing…

Podcasts and audio lectures!  Love, love, love  :-)

Here are a few that should not be missed!

--Teaching From a State of Rest audio lecture with Andrew Kern.  Fantastic and well worth listening to!
--RAR #1  Sarah @amongstlovelythings has been working very hard on creating a community to nourish the momma heart.  She just made her first podcast chatting with Andrew Pudewa from IEW and it was AWESOME!
--Nurturing  Competent Communicators with Andrew Pudewa.  Some very good information  and well worth listening to more than once.

 

Clicking around…

• Handbook of Nature Study
• Inspiring Children
• 31 Days to Morning Time

Around the house…

Books everywhere. Trying to revamp, regroup and reorganize the school room as well as the rest of our home.

One of my favorite things…

Finding JOY in all of the little things in every day life.

I swear, once you do it and make it a habit, it is SO addicting and you find yourself happier and more filled with grace and joy for your efforts.  So much of our noise that fills our days is negative thinking and outside influence.  Once we realize that only positive thoughts come from God we begin creating a virtuous cycle which is a JOY to live!

A few plans for the next week…

Eating a little birthday cake and spending as much time outside as possible soaking in the sunshine.

The Weekend in Review

We had such a fun weekend! It was jammed packed with non stop action, mostly outside (YAY!) due to great weather.

There was the Testosterone Zone.

  I am the queen in my house of blue and boys will be boys and we had LOTS of boys {and one lone girl} hanging out and playing.  We usually have lots of kids over, but, this summer our little group seems to have grown. A good amount of the pictures I took came out blurry and you can't tell, but, we had ten boys here riding bikes.  It was pretty entertaining!

We had a birthday party for Lovey Dovey's Webkinz.  They all turned TWO on Saturday.  I thought it was very sweet of them to all celebrate their birthday on the same day! 

Here is Lovey Dovey making his GF, EF, DF, NF chocolate cake for them bright and early Saturday morning.  This cake is amazing and it is probably one of the best I have
come across!

{notice that Lovey Dovey could not wait until their party to have some cake!}

We even had some basketball to round off the weekend nicely.

 

I hope you enjoyed your weekend with your family as much as I did mine!

Happy Birthday, Noel

               Noel is our sweet, very energetic and talkative Border Collie.

 Today is her second birthday and we celebrated it over breakfast with her favorite food...PANCAKES!

                    Happy Birthday, Noel!!!
    Thanks for all of the love and laughter you add to our lives!

Letting Go to Let Them Grow

I have always wanted my kids to stay little just a little bit longer.
I just adore them being little and it just seems to fly by a little faster every year.


I have tried to make deals with them not to turn a year older when their birthday arrives.
I have also teased my oldest this past birthday when he turned TEN and told him I was going to place 01 on the cake instead of 10.  Of course, being the smart cookie that he is...he told me that he would just swing the cake around until it read 10!


Sometimes people understand how I feel.
I feel conflicted inside.  I know that there is nothing I can do to stop this process, but, still there is that part of me that yearns for it to continue just a little bit longer.


I love all of the whimsical days of early childhood.  Looking for butterflies, seeing a robin pull a worm out of the ground for the first time, blowing bubbles in the breeze for what seems like forever! I actually miss things that I thought would never end and made me a little crazy at times..like endless hours of playing Thomas the Tank Engine, so many Wiggles dances that I considered trying out for the roadshow and playing Chutes and Ladders so many times I lost count!


But, we don't watch the Wiggles anymore and nobody has played with the sweet little engines in quite some time now and it is a passage of time changing for my boys.


I really do miss those days, but, I still have a five year old to savor just a little bit longer :-)



It has really hit me harder this year since my oldest just turned TEN.


TEN....I am still trying to figure out how that happened so fast!  He was just in my stomach and I can vividly remember being 41 1/2 weeks pregnant and on maternity leave and waiting, waiting, waiting for this child to make his grand entrance!


Trust me...it feels like just yesterday.


Of course there have been a few more babies in my belly since then and all of those sweet memories feel like just yesterday too.



I had a realization the other day that I need to let go and let them grow.  This is a new and exciting time right now.  Lots of new emotions and hormones floating through that little one of mine and the best thing I can do is not to dwell on his littleness, but, to do the best that I can to embrace his early manhood.  He is a good little man too.  Very polite, sweet and caring...always has been.


So...although I cannot keep my boys little forever, I still love each and every little thing about their childhood and am trying to embrace as best I can the realization that they will not be children for too much longer.
It is very bittersweet and lots of wonderful memories always wash over me, especially at birthdays.


With each year I am getting just a little bit better with letting go and letting them fly.  I would have not made a very good bird.  I still watch as the baby birds are born and am amazed that they fly away after such a short time.


This momma heart just loves her babies so much and just wants the best for her boys and letting them go so they can grow is just a little bit of what I need to do right now at this time.

Childhood Lost

My second son, Kit Kat, turned eight today.
We had a nice birthday party for him on Saturday.  We decided to have the party at home this year and keep it simple.  Since he always tells me that I make the best cookies in the world I decided to make him a giant chocolate chip cookie cake!

We set up volleyball and ladderball in the backyard, had a cookout and just planned to relax and enjoy the abundant sunshine!

Of course the best plans do not always go the way that you expect.

We had five boys (plus my three) over here and I would say that  3/4 of them immediately and constantly gravitated to the almighty screen.  They wanted to play on the computer, or watch television or play a video game.


*sigh*

I think I am really starting to date myself since all of this is not floating in my house at all lately!


I have been feeling the need urge to disconnect for quite some time.
I cannot really explain it too much, but, I truly feel that we are too plugged in at times and I really am pretty strict about what I allow.


My kids do not have an iPhone, iTouch or any handheld game thingies.  I just don't think they need to have these things.  I watch as all of their friends walk around the neighborhood oblivious to anyone around them like little moths to a flame and just don't feel that we were put here to sit in front of a screen for extended periods of time.



Of course I could say the same for what I do here on Blogger, but, I am trying to keep this as a journal of our experiences and really do limit the frequency of my posting.


Getting back to the party...
My kids were the ones who mostly stayed outside and played along with their bff from next door.  They have friends whose parents admit that their kids are addicted to the computer.  I hate that we as a society are like this and am so very thankful that I did not grow up in this era where there is so much coming at you all of the time.

This morning I spent 55 minutes in a live chat with Kodak because something happened with my son's camera and it would not transfer the pictures to the computer.  55 minutes that I will not get back.  I am not saying that I am not grateful for the assistance with the camera, but, really was using film that bad?
You took pictures, you had them developed and you got what you got.  There was time for things and everything had its place in time.  Now we have so much and not enough time to do it all!

Again...I am dating myself, but, things were simpler when I was a child.

That is why I am probably known as the unfun mom on the street who won't let her kids and their friends sit around playing video games aimlessly for hours on end.  I am also the mom who makes lots of cookies with her kids and their friends to sell at their lemonade stand during the summer and always makes sure we have a freezer filled with popsicles for those hot summer days.  My husband cannot believe we got through so many popsicles in a week!

I just want life to slow down a bit and for everyone to enjoy it the way it is supposed to be.
Can you imagine how much would have been missed throughout history if everyone was constantly plugged in most of the time?

I am also the mom who is prayerfully contemplating cutting the cable and going to regular tv for the summer.
We can do so much more if that is not an option.  Like I said we don't watch alot of tv, but, getting rid of it appeals to me for many reasons (money being one of the perks too!).

The most amazing things happen when we slow down and just take a deep breath of fresh air and look at all of God's beautiful creations around us.

It is just the way it's supposed to be, but, this is just one momma's opinion.

Buh-Bye 45!

Wow!  It has been a while since my last visit.  So long in fact that Blogger changed their format on me!
We've been busy with birthdays (Handsome and Daddy), Holy Week and Easter, CAT testing, heading into the end of the school year and planning for the next.  Anyone who homeschools knows this is alot to process in a few weeks!

I gratefully say buh-bye to 45 on April 29th and am truly looking forward to it!

The past year was filled with much physical and mental anguish and I am happy to be putting it all behind me :D
It all started a little over a year ago when I tore my rotator cuff (which is still healing).  That was my first chronic thing physically and something that took time to adapt. Once I became comfortable with the condition, another set in and once that one cleared another came on.  The last one that came was actually the first in disguise since it has been brewing since December 2010.  I had been having many, many stomach aches (not stomach literally, more of the digestive area) for a looooong time and in September I decided to be proactive about it and really try to figure it out (via testing and a referral to a gastroenterologist) and find a solution to it all.  After months of testing and pain I discovered a few other chronic things (a nasty side effect of testing is that you find other things you were not looking for!).  None of these were life threatening, but, some modifications to my daily routine could be made.  It all came to a pinnacle three days before Christmas when I was diagnosed with early mild Crohn's disease.

The year seemed to be filled with one cross after another. I am naturally a worrier by nature so all of these crosses did not bide well on my already ill digestive system!  Word to the wise...digestion is directly affected by stress and not in a good way!

So.... along the way I cheerfully picked up my crosses and went on with my life.
Oh how I wish this were the case.  I did just the opposite.  The last three months of last year were filled with fear and anguish and a little bit of pity.  I was overwhelmed, confused and pretty frightened.  I did not get alot done due to the fear and I hated that most of all.

Fast forward to New Years of this year....
I decided to take a very proactive approach to all of this as I was so exhausted from all of the worry.  It serves absolutely no purpose and is so incredibly draining!  In the wonderful words of Padre Pio...

 "Pray, hope and don't worry.  Worry is useless.  God is merciful and will hear your prayer."

So that's what I did. I prayed and placed all of my fears with Him.
I made some major dietary and lifestyle changes which included the biggest one of all...
to just LET GO and LET GOD.
And you know what....it worked :D


I am so happy to say that as of the first Friday in Lent I have been in remission healed.  I don't like the term in remission especially since I have placed my trust in God and the Holy Spirit to lead me to make good choices daily when it comes to eating and stress.  I like thinking in thoughts of being healed :D

Now that the anguish, fear, suffering and the like have been gone for almost two months I am like a flower and blossoming and stretching my hands up to God in praise and thanks daily and thrilled to take up the smaller daily crosses and walk with Him doing His will.

Six months ago I would have never thought that there were any positives to the past year at all, but, there were blessings right along with the suffering.
I have literally at times been on my knees praying for Jesus to take away the pain and fear and that has brought me even closer to Him being so childlike with Him.

 So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.  Cast all your worries upon Him because He cares for you. 1Peter5:6-7

I had thought that our  school year suffered and I did not get everything done just the way that I had planned to, but, test scores and all of the work we did throughout the year say otherwise.  It has also led me to make some major changes in the way that we school here which I will talk more about in a different post. Very exciting changes are in the making!

So with only five days left of being 45 I can say that this was perhaps the most challenging year of my life and I am so grateful to have weathered the storms and truly know that I would not have made it through without Jesus by my side and for that I am truly grateful!   I look forward to turning 46 and hope that the coming year will be filled with unbelievable blessings for everyone I know!

{Sniff ...Sniff}

My oldest son, Handsome, is turning TEN in eleven days.

I have been working on a photoshow for his birthday and let me tell you that there is no better way to tug at a momma's heartstrings than to look at 120 pictures of her baby set to music and see how he has grown into such a handsome, caring and sweet young man.








This is hard for me to believe. I know he is growing up, but, to me he will always be my little boy.






This is my little boy who came to me all on his own, dressed up and with flowers wanting to take me out for dinner...only a few years ago.









This is the little boy that I spent hours making his Gold Power Ranger Halloween costume last fall.






And, this is the little boy who will be turning TEN in eleven days.




Happy almost birthday, Handsome. It is such a pleasure to be your momma!

Happy Birthday, Lovey Dovey!

My youngest son turned FIVE today!
To me this is a huge milestone telling me that *sigh* he is not a baby anymore :(
I don't know what it is about FIVE that makes the crossover from baby to little boy, but, it is there. I began the morning like I do every time it is one of my boys birthdays with quietly reminiscing about their births before my feet even hit the floor.

The night I went into labor with Lovey Dovey it was a gorgeous star filled night in an extremely snowy February. There was so much snow that February that we were nervous that I would be able to get to the hospital to have a VBAC which was 40 minutes away. God was indeed with us that night as after days upon days of feet of snow, the roads were clear and safe travels commenced.

After my feet hit the floor this morning, I sat and watched Lovey Dovey sleeping quietly his last few minutes of four year old sleep. As with all celebrations in our home my other two sons were up by 6:00 a.m. to celebrate! I woke Lovey Dovey this morning a few minutes before 6:17 a.m. to give him his birth minute kiss. I know...I am a little sappy, but, these minutes only come once a year and to me they are extra special!

Speaking of extra special, I love that his birthday is on Ash Wednesday this year. Nice way to start off Lent! Handsome will turn TEN this year on Good Friday too!

We had a little family party today after lunch. Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa and a few friends came over too. Since Lovey Dovey is on a special gluten, nuts, egg and milk free diet I usually make dueling cakes...one for him and one for everyone else. This year I decided we are all going to have his cake and it was yummy! He was thrilled that we were all eating his cake too.

We are remodeling part of our home and the room we celebrated in is going to be our bedroom shortly. There is work still needed to be done on it, but, it's coming along. My husband and Handsome did a really nice job decorating it for the party.




Happy Birthday, Lovey Dovey! Just so you know, you will always be my baby!